Yup, and I don't mean to sound so critical about how you or anyone else would prioritize their spending for the gear they want. If I were in more of a tuck and roll career, as I once was, then likely I'd be looking to acquire the most rugged equipment I could get my hands on, especially if my life is counting on it. For the more sedentary and cautious role I play nowadays, the most extreme abuse I am likely to put on my gear is a far cry from it's expected limits, not that I'm a slouch, but I'm not as active or reckless as I used to be.

I guess it's the frugal scotsman in me that follows that bell curve of value vs. cost, that law of diminishing returns that says I need only pay for just a skosh more than I intend to use, just so I can reap the full value of the dollars I spend. The only time I complain about spending the money to have the very best is when it requires me to do without something else I think I need because there's just not enough to go around, and there's always something else I need, so for me a certain level of compromise is justified I suppose. The very best, it turns out, is going to end up somewhere below the highest quality, or the biggest, or the most reliable, or the most convenient. It will end up wherever my economics balance with my need, after some careful scrutiny, so that while not posessing perhaps the finest example of a given type, I will also not be stuck with something that won't meet my expectations.

This, I believe, is the essence of the ETS society. We find what works, we evaluate it thoroughly, and we decide if it is worth whatever costs we must pay. Otherwise, I suppose we'd all be driving those new $90k International diesel 5 ton pickup trucks back and forth to work everyday or some such. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I too hold those ALICE packs in low regard.